The invention relates to a device for processing photosensitive materials such as printing plates, comprising an obliquely downwardly inclined feed table, a first spray tube containing nozzles for spraying liquid onto the photosensitive material, a brush roller rotating in the opposite direction to the direction of passage of the material and a pair of squeeze rollers.
German Utility Model No. 82 00 249 discloses a device for removing correcting agent from printing plates. This known device is accommodated in a casing which also houses a developing station which is positioned before the device and a gumming station which is positioned following the device. The brush roller rotates in a direction opposite to the direction of passage of the printing plate behind the spray tube and forms a wedge-shaped pool of water below the spray tube, which dilutes the correcting agent located on the printing plates so that it no longer attacks the plate surface. The drops of the generally viscous correcting agent which adhere to the plate surface are mechanically removed by the brush roller and thrown into the pool of water. The correcting agent diluted in the pool of water flows off with the water over the side edges of the printing plate to be corrected so that, behind the brush roller, the printing plate has only a thin film of water which is then squeezed off by the following pair of squeeze rollers. The printing plate from which the correcting agent has been cleaned off can be regummed in the subsequent gumming station.
In European Patent Application No. 0,080,659, a processing apparatus for imagewise exposed photosensitive materials is described which has three treatment zones. In an upper section of the housing are two separate, obliquely downwardly inclined inlet tables which open into admission slots. A lower tank section is integrally constructed with the inlet tables and accommodates the tank inserts of the three treatment zones. The treatment fluid is applied to the top and underside of the material to be developed in each of the three treatment zones. In the treatment zones, the material is successively developed, rinsed or washed and, finally, preserved. The developed material is corrected outside the apparatus after which a further preserving and gumming step, respectively, then follows. For this last step, the corrected developed material is pushed via one inlet table directly into the treatment zone for preserving the developed material.
In European Pat. No. 0,050,818, a developing apparatus for sheet material, which is used, for example, for flexible printing plates, is described which consists of a two-tank combination with a separating web. The two tank combination has a developer tank and a post treatment tank and comprises removable inserts for transport and guide means having pairs of feed rollers and discharge rollers for guiding the material along an arcuate path through the treatment fluid baths. A rotating brushing roller with a spring loaded counter roller on the other side of the transport path is located in front of the discharge area of the developer tank above the transport path of the material and partially below the fluid level. The brushing roller is covered by a protective cap having one bottom edge which extends below the developer fluid level.
German Pat. No. 2,164,981 describes a developing device for electro-photographic recording material containing a pair of feed rollers and a pair of squeeze rollers between which the recording material is obliquely downwardly directed with the image side up.
Between the pairs of rollers, a supply device for the liquid developer is disposed above the recording material for maintaining a developer bath above the recording material adjacent the pair of squeeze rollers. The supply device is shielded by a deflection part against the point of entry of the recording material into the developer bath, which bath is dammed by an obliquely downwardly extending support section for the sheet-shaped recording material, the side walls and the squeeze rollers.
Photosensitive material such as printing plates, photo papers and similar materials are frequently manually retouched with a correcting agent after development and gumming in a developing machine. The correcting agent dissolves part of the gumming and the developed layer of the photosensitive material and must be subsequently removed from the corrected developed material. During this removal process, care must be taken that the corrosive correcting agent does not attack and dissolve the remaining areas of the developed surface of the material. This removal step, which includes rinsing off the correcting agent, has been previously done by hand, although the device disclosed in the previously mentioned German Utility model document No. 82 00 249 enables the correcting agent to be rinsed off by machine. In this device, since the tufts of bristles of the brush roller which face away from the pool of water carry only a very small amount of water, the dilution, and, thus, the reliable removal, of the correcting agent from the plate surface is unsatisfactory. The device is designed merely for rinsing correcting agent from the printing plate surface and its application to another processing step such as the development or washing of a printing plate is not suggested.